


inquiring minds

by Tauria



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: s02e24 Moonvasion!, Spoilers, baby's first ducktales fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 13:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20725151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tauria/pseuds/Tauria
Summary: penumbra wants to know: howdiddonald survive lunaris's prototype? (and in the process of asking, she learns that donaldmaybedidn't tell his family about the risks involved in his return.)





	inquiring minds

**Author's Note:**

> my first ducktales fanfic!! lemme know if anything feels out of character! i'm still getting the hang of things <3

It wasn't until after the final battle was over that Penumbra approached him. Seeing him aboard the ship had been a shock, but there had been more important things to worry about at the time. But now... It was over. And while there were still things to worry about (what would happen between the earthlings and her people? Where would they go? Where would they stay?) The most pressing things had been taken care of. Which meant she could finally ask the question that had been burning her throat since she spotted him.

"How did you survive?" In retrospect, it probably wasn't the wisest idea to slam her hands on the table and ask it in front of the entire 'family' as Della called them.

Donald jumped, his eyes wide. His strange mouth opened once, and then twice, and then he rolled his shoulders, a gesture that was basically as unintelligible to her as his speech.

"What do you mean, 'how did he survive'?" Della asked. Her face was twisted up in an expression Penumbra had learned to identify as 'displeasure.' or maybe confusion.

(So she was still working on the earth expressions thing. Some of them were similar enough to the moonlanders, but most of them? Incomprehensible.)

She supposed she was going to have to at least try and understand them, though.

Penumbra looked at the other earther. "You didn't tell them?"

"Tell us what?" Della really sounded agitated now. Or so Penumbra assumed. She... hadn't actually heard the earther upset before. (No matter how hard she had tried.)

Donald sank into his seat.

"While he was on the moon," Penumbra said, "He was supposed to help me disable the ships. Instead, we found Lunaris's war room. He'd been spying on earth for years, gathering information on you and your family." She waved her hand at them. "He'd tried building his own ships, but he failed. No one could survive in them. That's why he befriended you. To steal your rocket plans." Penumbra glanced at Donald. Only the top of his skull was visible over the table. "He told Donald that he was going to take you out... Starting with the children."

Della's eyes went wide. Scrooge muttered something under his breath, while the kids gasped. Donald made an angry noise, though not as angry as the one he'd made before he'd shown Lunaris what for. (Or did his best to, anyway. He’d gotten a few good blows in, and that was what mattered.)

"One of Lunaris's ships was in the war room."

Della looked at her brother. "You _didn't_."

Donald smiled, but something about it looked nervous, instead of happy.

"He did," Penumbra said, and if admiration seeped into her tone, well. That was her business. "First, he called you." She pointed at Scrooge, who's eyes went wide—and then he palmed his face. Penumbra didn't bother trying to puzzle out what emotion that was. "Then, he launched the ship. And he _survived_. So how did you do it?"

The earther muttered something, but like most of the things he said, Penumbra didn't understand a word. She looked around the table, hoping someone could translate.

Della was still frowning, but she answered, "He says he doesn't know."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait." One of the kids was talking, the one in green. "You mean to tell me, that... That... We could have lost Uncle Donald? And we wouldn't even have _known_?" His eyes were filling up with moisture.

Donald's head popped back up over the table and he reached out. The green one, Louie (that was his name, wasn't it?), went to him, wrapping his arms around him the way Della used to do to her. He buried his face in Donald's torso, and Donald held him tightly, one hand smoothing the tufts on the back of his head.

The earther glanced up at the other children, each one with varying expressions of what Penumbra thought was probably horror. After a second's hesitation, the other three launched themselves at him, holding onto him just as tightly.

Della's eyes, too, looked watery. She walked behind them, wrapping her arms around her brother's shoulders. It couldn't have been comfortable, leaning over the chair the way she did, but she did it anyway. Another moment passed, and then too came scrooge, bundling them all into his arms. Penumbra looked away.

"We thought you were on a cruise!" one of the kids, Huey (that was the red one, wasn't it?) cried. (Part of Penumbra wanted to ask what a ‘cruise’ was. The rest of her knew that it wasn’t the time.)

"You were supposed to be _relaxing_," the female (Webby?) Said.

"I _knew _something was wrong," the blue one (Dewey...?) Said. "But-but.... I thought it was _blackmail_ and it _wasn't_!"

Donald said something unintelligible, to which scrooge replied, "Ach, they found out about yer anger management classes."

"Donald went to anger management?" Della asked.

There was a slight rolling motion, presumably as Donald did that shoulder thing again.

"So he could be a good parent!" the girl said.

"Oh." Della was quiet, then, and there was something soft in her eyes that had Penumbra looking away again. She felt stiff. Awkward. Uncomfortable. But at the same time, she couldn't quite bring herself to leave. There was a part of her (a very small part, but one that had been steadily growing since the cursed day she met Della) that almost wanted to join in. Or at the very least try to make things better... Somehow.

She wasn't sure what to say, though. 

"Why’d you do it, Uncle Donald? You knew the risks, didn't you?" The red one again.

Donald replied, scratchy voice softer than usual. This time, Penumbra could just make out the words. "I had to get back to you kids," he said.

Penumbra's throat felt tight.

"You really are the bravest man on two worlds," she said softly, and Donald looked at her. His own eyes were wet. He did the rolling shoulder motion again.

"I don't know what that means," she said.

"It's a shrug, Penny," Della said. "It's a... Non-committal gesture. It means my brother is... He doesn't agree with you but he's not going to argue with you either." she glanced at him. "Even though I guess you're kind of right. He _is _pretty brave. For a worrywart."

Donald inflicted her with an expression Penumbra knew _all _too well. A glare. Della only smiled, though, because nothing stopped Della Duck. Especially not something so soft as a glare. (Penumbra had learned that the hard way.) 


End file.
